Prop 8 - The Musical Shows The Power of New Media

It's been only a day, and Marc Shaiman's creative musical take on Prop 8 (the California anti-gay marriage initiative which was voted into law last month) is today's "next big thing" on the Net.  In less than 24 hours, the 3 minute video featured on funnyordie.com has already been seen almost 1.3 million times.  Those are pretty  impressive numbers when you consider the marketing budget is essentially $0.00.

This shows the power of viral marketing combined with a ubiquitous, instantaneous distribution system.  This media power is available to everyone, and we have barely begun scratching the surface of what can be accomplished with it.

Of course, Shaiman's musical features Jack Black, John C. Reilly, Neil Patrick Harris and a whole lot of other popular stars.  That certainly drives the huge appeal.  But all of that star power (not to mention Shaiman's own brilliant material) was spread through the power of the medium.  Without a digital media infrastructure, Shaiman would have had to make DVD copies and put them in a rack at Whole Foods Market (or some other establishment where his intended audience was likely to see it).  In other words, he probably wouldn't have bothered to create it at all.  But the ability to instantly make it available to the world is really what made it worth doing.  The digital media infrastructure facilitated and perhaps even inspired the creativity.

Of course, it is the power of this medium, and the fact that it is literally in its infancy, that caused  the WGA strike and may well lead to a SAG strike in the not too distant future.  Everyone sees where the entertainment business is going and they don't want to be left out in the cold.  Both sides probably have some valid points, but they might well kill the goose before it ever lays its first golden egg.  After all, over a million people may have already viewed Prop 8 - The Musical, but it certainly hasn't generated enough revenue to begin to pay for the production (if everyone hadn't been working for a cause instead of for their normal paychecks).

Mobile DTV Takes Another Step

A more technical (and very insightful) take from Greg Tarr on the importance of this week's technical developments in the Mobile DTV area:

Mobile DTV Takes Another Step: "

A seemingly minor yet important item came out of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) this week in regard to the forthcoming Mobile DTV...

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Mobile DTV

This article from Broadcasting and Cable discusses how the technical hurdles have been cleared to allow digital television to be broadcast to mobile devices.  This allows manufacturers to start building the hardware that will put television in everyone's pocket.  This is a significant development for the media industry.

It marks another major milestone in giving consumers the content they want when and where they want it.  Obviously, when used in conjunction with other mobile technologies, the commercial possibilities are huge.  From a business standpoint, the end game here is to make consumers' buying behavior into a virtually seamless experience with their media usage.  See it, want it, get it -- anytime, anywhere.

I'm not saying that we want to encourage people to buy things they don't need or can't afford (I think there is too much of that going on already).  However, access to information about products and services should be linked (both in time and proximity) to the ability to actually obtain those products and services.  I think that is becoming a quality of life issue for this century.  Clearly, technology is the key to achieving that goal.

The More Things Change, The More They Remain The Same

It's been almost 9 months since my last post. I moved my practice to a larger firm and took a blogging break to sit back and watch. So what's changed in 9 months? In some respects, a lot. But in many respects, not so much.

We have a new president from the other party taking office in less than 2 months. The economy continued to get worse and then went into a bit of a free fall. People were nervous about the economy in March; they're more nervous now.

But in the entertainment business, certain universal truths have held. We need to give consumers the content they want, when they want it, where they want it and at a price that represents value. This is not news, but it should be at the center of every company's strategy. Technology should be used to facilitate that simple goal -- get the right content to the consumers the way they want it. They will pay for that.

Blu-Ray? As I mentioned a while ago, any business based on physical delivery has a limited shelf life. I think a certain segment of consumers will pay for the highest quality hardware and software, but the software will ultimately be delivered to the hardware through a high speed connection. That's what they want.

Ad-based models will survive, but the scramble for ad dollars has become much more competitive in this challenging economic environment. I think the winners will be those companies that can deliver a superior user experience -- letting consumers interact with the advertising in a comfortable, engaging manner. That will result in purchases, and that's always the bottom line in the ad business.

The film business continues the run towards digital and 3D at the studios, but overall I think it is still healthy. The expansion of online outlets that connect to high quality output devices is creating a market for super low-budget films. I think this will expand and actually feed and expand the market for creative independent projects. This will help certain filmmakers gain audiences and migrate to the big screen. It's all about audiences and technology is facilitating the process of finding the people who like a particular genre or artist.

I'm going to start picking out the sign posts again on a regular basis. In the meantime, I welcome comments, ideas, questions, criticism...whatever. I think a healthy discourse is a key element of keeping our industry healthy. Let's keep talking.

Opportunity In The Current Economic Environment

Well, it's Monday morning and I'm doing my normal review of news and announcements. It's definitely a slower environment. There is a lot of talk about the economic slow down. Obviously, this is a self-perpetuating situation. As people hear more about a slowing economy, they become more cautious (if not downright nervous) and they develop a wait-and-see attitude towards their next strategic moves. (This seems to be happening in the Microsoft-Yahoo situation, but who really knows what Microsoft is doing or thinking.)

I wholeheartedly believe that times like these can present the greatest opportunities. Everyone broadens their vision and companies might be willing to listen to ideas that they would ignore in boom times. After all, when companies are making a ton of money with their current strategy, they aren't looking for new ideas. They are generally just focused on executing the strategy as well as possible to capitalize on the environment of success.

However, when things start to slow down, companies start reconsidering what other avenues might be open to them. They will re-examine their strategies and take the extra time to listen to some new ideas. This presents a great opportunity to creative companies to propose new relationships or deals that might not have been considered in a busier environment.

I encourage everyone to think outside the box, look for new ideas, look at new potential deal partners, and don't be afraid to communicate and consider. It is in times like these that the deck gets reshuffled and you don't want to be left out of that mix by sitting on the sidelines. The decisions you make now will determine where you are situated when things heat up again.

Slow News Days -- Or Perhaps Not...

I look through the news daily, mostly just to keep myself informed. I'm also looking for interesting items to blog on. As you can see, I haven't written a blog entry for almost a couple of weeks. I've been looking, but honestly, I just didn't see anything that caught my eye or sparked any big thoughts. Maybe it was me, or maybe things really slowed down.

Clearly, the economy is struggling a bit. I think that has made dealmakers more cautious. (No one likes to buy anything that's on the way down.) Personally, I think values will go down a bit more and some bargains will appear, and the deals will start again. That's the nature of economic cycles. In fact, the Fed should be careful not to prop up the economy too much with interest rate decreases (if indeed that strategy is still working). That will only stall price corrections in company values, and those price corrections will actually spur more deals than cheap money. (And cheap money doesn't help if lenders are too nervous to lend, and that seems to be somewhat the case right now.)

I think the other point that slowed me down on my blogging is a lack of any real big technology breakthroughs or announcements. After all, for the past several years it has been technology that has driven much of the revolutionary changes in the entertainment industry. However, when I thought about looking for major technology breakthroughs on a daily basis, it made me laugh. Have we really come to expect major developments and announcements every day? I know I have. I expect to open my email in the morning and see something amazing -- every morning. That's funny. It tells me just how fast things are really moving.

When our expectation is that something great will happen every day, that would indicate that a whole lot of great stuff has been happening for a long time. And that's true. Let's not forget that we live in the golden age of innovation. Economic cycles are no match for rampant creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. We are still surrounded by more innovation and creative energy than ever and I am confident that the string of amazing advances in both technology and business will continue for the foreseeable future.

Personally, I'm not that worried about a week or two where things slow down a bit. In fact, perhaps it's good to catch our breath once in a while, sit back and reflect. The calm moments between creative bursts are as important to the process as the big announcements.